Episode 1447 (8 May 1997)
Synopsis Joe is still being naughty in the mental hospital and refusing to take his medication and generally causing trouble. Lorraine takes him some books he should be reading for school, including Jane Austen, which Grant comments is unlikely to interest him, and he suggests some magazines instead. Lorraine also writes down a list of questions to ask the psychiatrist because she says she gets all confused when she's talking to doctors and can't remember what she wants to say. Grant is annoyed because Tiffany's baby is crying downstairs. Simon takes the baby to work because it won't shut up and Tiffany needs some rest, and Sanjay isn't impressed, but lets Simon get away with it this time. Grant is even less impressed when he sees Simon later, and he tells Simon he'll "be watching him." Peggy defends Tiffany saying to Grant that since he's never had to get up four times a night to feed a screaming child, he is not qualified to comment and she needs a break. Grant goes to see Tiffany later and Simon is there so he doesn't get a chance to shout at her alone so he goes away and phones Marcus the solicitor saying it is extremely urgent. Pauline tells Martin he is a monster and she loses a half day's pay because she has to take him to the headmaster after the police charges. The result is he's suspended for a short period, and Pauline tells him not to look at it as a holiday. When Pat comes to ask Pauline about covering the launderette, Martin runs off and hides in the square with the gang leader, who asks him if he's still on to meet the girls at the café later this afternoon. He also advises Martin that the police won't take him to court if he goes on about his father being dead, they'll let him off. At Nigel's Dot asks Clare about Martin stealing the school computer, and if she is a friend of his. Clare says she used to be but he's a bit immature. When Sonia turns up they dash to her room to giggle together about the meeting later and discuss their clothes and make-up for the big event this afternoon. Dot goes to the launderette and asks Pat about Pauline's absence, saying she knows all about Martin. Pat says it's none of "our" business, and Dot should take her interfering busybody ways out of the square. Dot goes home to Nigel's feeling sorry for herself at being told a few home truths and says she should perhaps leave. Nigel persuades her to stay and come to the Vic with him later. Mark advises Michael not to flaunt his new jacket in the square as he's already being talked about. Huw and Lenny ask Barry for overtime as they've lost their jobs in the club, and Barry isn't too sympathetic, but calls them later when they aren't at home. He sees them in the pub and mentions that he was trying to give them work but they were not contactable. They're furious and say he should have known they'd be in the pub. Lorraine decides to go to the mental hospital early to see Joe, but she isn't allowed to because he's being treated. She has to wait around a few hours for her appointment with the doctor, and a man sits next to her and creeps closer and closer to her then starts talking to her, rambling on about his job and how he does the books for the relatives support group. Then he tells her the old joke about the difference between the doctor and the patient: the patient thinks he's God, the psychiatrist knows he is. Lorraine doesn't laugh. Lorraine finally goes in to see the doctor and behaves irrationally and is totally flustered and incapable of stringing together a sentence. The psychiatrist asks her a few questions about Joe's background and Lorraine suggests it started when Karen died, and the doctor asks why she thinks that, and where is Peter, the father figure at the time, and also David, the real father? Lorraine says she doesn't know, and asks what that has to do with Joe. The psychiatrist says he needs some background and Lorraine panics and says she wanted to ask him a few questions. She looks in her handbag for her list but can't find it and has a panic attack. The doctor asks if she would like a few moments alone to calm down, but she says no. He asks if she would like to know a bit about Joe's illness, and she says yes. He explains that it's now diagnosed as schizophrenia, and the initial diagnosis of depression was wrong as there was so little evidence for them to go on. He says there is no clear reason for the disease, but he can explain the symptoms. They are the patient feeling that his will is not under his own control, and his thoughts are not his own: he may suffer delusions and will be vague and illogical. He says there is good news, though, and Joe is responding to the medication. Lorraine has stopped her panic attack and now says lamely "I love my son". The doctor sends her outside again to wait to see Joe. She phones Grant and whines down the phone about the diagnosis and says she thinks she is going out of her mind, and Grant says he will come to see her. Clare and Sonia get dressed up as they imagine eighteen year olds would. Dot sees them sneak past and goes to tell Nigel, who shuts up shop to go to the café and see what is happening. Martin and the gang boy are there, and they tease Sonia and Clare asking if they are meeting boyfriends, and where could they possibly have met them - not at claire@georgestreet perhaps? Sonia and Clare realise they've been conned and as they try to run away in embarrassment, Nigel walks in and completes the humiliation by telling Clare off for wearing make-up. Back at the hospital, the man Lorraine met sidles up to her again and rambles on again about schizophrenia and depression, which is his illness, and tells her that he tried to commit suicide 3 years ago. Grant turns up and strides up to them saying, "is this man bothering you?" The man scampers off like a frightened rabbit, but Lorraine says that he isn't, he was being kind, and she asks him for one of his leaflets. She finally goes to see Joe who is in a stereotypical drugged-up state sitting and rocking in a chair staring vacantly into the distance and dribbling like a brain dead vegetable. He neither acknowledges nor recognises Lorraine and Grant says they might as well go now, once it's obvious Joe is unable to recognise her. Credits Main cast *Joe Wicks - Paul Nicholls *Lorraine Wicks - Jacqueline Leonard *Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp *Simon Raymond - Andrew Lynford *Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma *Pauline Fowler - Wendy Richard *Peggy Mitchell - Barbara Windsor *Martin Fowler - James Alexandrou *Dot Cotton - June Brown *Clare Bates - Gemma Bissix *Pat Evans - Pam St. Clement *Nigel Bates - Paul Bradley *Sonia Jackson - Natalie Cassidy *Mark Fowler - Todd Carty *Michael Rose - Russell Floyd *Huw Edwards - Richard Elis *Lenny Wallace - Desune Coleman *Barry Evans - Shaun Williamson Guest cast * Category:Episode Category:1997 Episodes Category:Image Required